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Comment by amazingamazing | Hacker News Reader

Private colleges shouldn't be taking public money to begin with. Hopefully this ends with colleges having their (private college) tax exempt status revoked. Anyone who's been to Massachusetts knows how much real estate Harvard (and MIT, and BU, and Boston College, etc, etc.) owns. Why should they be tax exempt?

End it now.

Also, Trump's demands are silly and not even internally consistent.

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They are both colleges (educational institutions) and research institutions. For decades or more, research in the USA has been a central function of government (although it also happens in a few entirely privately funded organizations). That's what (most) of the public money is for, and there is no sane reason to stop that.

Yes - there is another HN discussion active today on the topic: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43692360

Public colleges can monopolize the research funded with public money.

Please elaborate. The Federal government funds various research programs. Are you saying that the Federal government should not pay any universities for research? Or that universities that have an endowment should not be paid for research? Or something else?

Private universities, yes. Public colleges can receive the funding that would've otherwise gone to private colleges.

This seems a dumb way to allocate Federal research funds. We, the taxpayers, should not choose the best university for these projects, but limit ourselves to only private universities? Is this what people mean by DEI? That we use some criteria other than merit when allocating resources?

You’re misunderstanding - I’m saying it should be only going to public universities, not private.

I understood that but had the sense backwards. If the best research institution for given grant is a private university, you are saying that it should be precluded from consideration.

Yes. There are plenty of great public universities.

We could extend this thinking to all public expenditures. National Socialism is getting popular again.

Yes. Private institutions shouldn't get public money.

Just to be clear: You think that the government should never pay private entities?

That is a hilariously silly idea.

> Hopefully this ends with colleges having their tax exempt status revoked.

Only if we do churches at the same time.

churches don't get billions annually in government funding, they are treated like any other charity in terms of donations

What do churches have to do with this article or my comment? Do churches receive billions of funding from the government?

> What do churches have to do with this article or my comment?

I quoted "Hopefully this ends with colleges having their tax exempt status revoked." because I think the US would be better off if churches were not tax exempt.

There are good arguments that we would better off if no non-profits were tax exempt and charitable donations weren't tax deductible.

> Do churches receive billions of funding from the government?

I don't think so.

> Hopefully this ends with colleges having their tax exempt status revoked

Harvard was founded to educate America's clergy. If there is a category of non-profits that could hop, skip and jump to religious exemption, it's the Ivy League.

Harvard today is a long way away from a religious college.

Sure. But so would, I’d argue, many Evangelical churches. The precedent makes it difficult to deny Harvard without creating precedent that could hit church schools.

End what? The government paying for research? I think that's a foolish idea.

Public Money going to private schools.

If we follow that thought through public money also shouldn't go to private companies.

Agreed. Let’s do that too.

so how would the government buy anything?

Are you suggesting that the government should not fund research, or that only state-operated universities should get government funding?

Furthermore, none of this has to do with an ideological take on "private universities and public funds". This is about Trump controlling the speech and behavior of every institution he can, through defunding and through blackmail.

> only state-operated universities should get government funding

Yes.

> Furthermore, none of this has to do with an ideological take on "private universities and public funds". This is about Trump controlling the speech and behavior of every institution he can, through defunding and through blackmail.

That is bad too, yes.

Ok have that argument on it's own and do it right legal, go through the legislature and discuss the appropriateness of public funding for private institution.

The Trump administration is not arguing or even considering that as part of their objectives here.

Do tou really think the goal of the Trump administration is to prioritize public universities?

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